ESI’s Japanese User Forum PUCA 2011 will take place on 5 & 6 December, bringing together Virtual Prototyping users and experts

Paris, France – 19 September, 2011 –ESI Group, pioneer and world-leading solution provider invirtual prototypingfor manufacturing industries, announces the 22nd PUCA, a user event aiming to support the deployment ofEnd-to-End Virtual Prototypingin Japan and neighboring countries. The event will address key industrial challenges of ESI’s customers across various industry sectors, with a focus on ground transportation, aerospace and energy.

Designed specifically for Japanese customers, but attracting visitors from across the Asia-Pacific region,PUCA 2011is a unique forum for ESI users to share their expertise, best practices, successes and challenges in implementingEnd-to-End Virtual Prototypingto help develop their products and manufacturing processes.

End-to-End Virtual Prototypingenables virtual manufacturing, building and testing of a product in coherent progressive stages and concurrently across multiple domains. It helps product development teams deliver quality results: accurate, for the right cost, at the right time, and with impressive benefits.

PUCA 2011will also be an opportunity to introduce

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, bringing the best 3D interactive and immersive visualization capabilities to bridge the gap between the virtual and physical prototyping worlds. This ground-breaking 3D visualization technology allows individuals and global teams to ‘experience their product’ and make design decisions long before physical prototypes are available; manifestly essential to End to End Virtual Prototyping.

The conference will bring together experts, senior practitioners and decision-makers from industry, and representatives from prestigious institutes and universities. Keynote speakers will address topics in different industry sectors - including ground transportation, aerospace and energy – and will challenge users to exchange information on their imperatives and experiences.

"We are looking forward to the next PUCA”, saidToshihiro Araki, General Manager of the Integrated CAE Department at NISSAN MOTORS. “This has been an important event for us for more than 20 years now. We value the opportunity to learn about the latest developments in virtual prototyping and share experiences with key users from around the world".

PUCA 2011will take place on 5 & 6 December, 2011 at the

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, Shinjuku area, Tokyo. On the evening of December 5, participants will gather for a gala dinner. For further information, please visithttp://www.esi-group.com/corporate/events/puca-2011

For more ESI news, visit:www.esi-group.com/newsroom

About ESI Group

ESI is a pioneer and world-leading solution provider in virtual prototyping for manufacturing industries that takes into account the physics of materials. ESI has developed an extensive suite of coherent, industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate a product’s behavior during testing, to fine-tune manufacturing processes in accordance with desired product performance, and to evaluate the environment’s impact on performance. ESI’s solutions fit into a single collaborative and open environment for End-to-End Virtual Prototyping, thus eliminating the need for physical prototypes during product development. The company employs about 850 high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 30 countries. ESI Group is listed in compartment C of NYSE Euronext Paris. For further information, visitwww.esi-group.com.

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ESI Group – Media Relations

Céline Gallerne

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